The Bright Side Only Privilege Sees

The increased activism and awareness of politics has some people looking at the “bright side” of the 45th president’s tyranny. Arguing that there are now more people invested in the government, his supporters and acceptors conveniently ignore the negative consequences of his actions and words. Their defense and the actual vocalization of the statement, no matter the validity, is exactly why America is in the state it’s in. As people like Conway and Spicer struggle to defend the radical decisions coming from the oval, they use the same type of deflection and distraction to sway the focus of where the conversation should be going. For them, however, they get paid to, whereas supporters are merely just displaying ignorance of the larger picture. The instance reflects how privilege in relation to the proximity of the consequences skews the tolerance for the president.

Stating that the 45th’s presidency is a good thing regarding a larger focus on politics rings many alarms. Firstly, although we have only been in this four year death sentence for a month, we have seen his ideology and bigotry for years, especially during his candidacy. The advancement of his election and nomination had already sparked many people to pay attention to the presidential elections and nevertheless, he still won.

The second issue with the statement is that for every positive, there is a negative, and in this case, a quite dangerous and serious one. Racism and white supremacy was able to come out of hiding at rallies filled with a passionate distaste in government. Mixing the two, along with a neglectful democratic party, handed him our country that was founded on both, rejecting a government and white supremacy. So as more people read about the importance of Dodd Frank regulations and what the cabinet lied about today, more white

hoods are being put on and anti-Muslim fliers are being posted around campus. As a result, people are afraid for their lives and serious emotionally affected due to the people running the White House and its supporters. This is a fairly significant consequence of the presidency to ignore and take lightly.

The most jarring conflict arising is the complete disregard for the past of this country. Trump is not the first Trump in America. This country was founded on stolen land, massacred civilizations of Native Americans, enslaved and exploited African bodies, restricted basic human rights of minorities, appropriated the cultures of said minorities, attacked foreign countries for no reason, and so on. The underlying theme for every single event is the fear of different and using that fear as the basis of identifying it as a threat. The 45th is, unfortunately for us, following the footsteps of presidents before him. And with each of these instances, there came the Abolitionist Movement, Harriet Tubman, the Martin Luther King, the Malcolm X, the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Right’s Movement, the Black Panther Movement, the Gay Right’s Movement. These things didn’t just pop out of nowhere, they came up from pressures and frustration, just as people are protesting and rioting today. Life would not be the same if any of these things did not occur and yet, no one would ever say that they are glad that segregation existed so that the Civil Rights Movement occurred. No one would ever say that they are glad slavery occurred so that the displaced Africans could eventually own their own rights to their bodies. The increased political awareness is nothing to be excited about because it is a reaction sprouting from desperation, not just a cool trend that it may be getting depicted as.

Privilege is when you don’t have to worry about the police getting more power to inflict police brutality or when you don’t have to worry about not being able to see family because of group of terrorists that have nothing to do with your religion. When you see and acknowledge these things happening, yet only focus on the “bright side”, you choose to be ignorant and silence the struggles of other Americans that do not deserve to live in fear. In a perfect world, many people wouldn’t be into politics because it wouldn’t even need to exist. In an ideal world, everyone and no one would be privileged together. This is not that world.